Rituals.

Rituals differ from family to family, person to person.  What some deem important, others have never heard of.  Nowadays, rituals tend to suffer the same ADD fate as may other things that we used to do.  Sunday dinners with family, going to church regularly, visits to grandmas house.  But for us, one of the constants has been the Opening Day of Trout season.

Rhode Island is far from the trout capital of the world.  Truth be told, most of the population is "put and take". Farm fish. Put there for the average joe to go out, put some power bait on a hook, and go home with a fish dinner.  Everyone feels like a fisherman.  If you can't catch fish on opening day, somethings up.

Some of my earliest memories, and some of my most memorable ones, have been on Opening day.  As a child, I was marched out on the second Saturday of April,  bundled up with layer upon layer, and armed with an old green Stanley thermos full of hot chocolate in search of some fish.  More often than not, the day was about 30 minutes of fishing, and then exploring the area, drinking my hot chocolate, and dealing with varying levels of cold from repeated near catastrophic falls into the water.

Almost without exception, the second saturday is a cold, clear, still morning.  Many years the water has been so cold that ice has clogged the eyes of the rod; sometimes freezing the line in place.

But, cold or not, the fish, and the fisherman return.  The small mill pond that we have frequented for the last 25 years or so sees the same visitors year after year.  Most people I don't know, other than for the one morning a year that we stand in close proximity, trading a polite hello, and chatting about fish.  There is always a guy who trips on the same rock as we wade into the water; another who always tangles his line in the tree overhead.  The people vary, but the rock and tree claim their yearly victims.  Howie Ogert, a local, has been fishing there every year since I have; and every year we chat briefly about the fishing, and about his deteriorating health, which has left him blind in one eye; and limited to fishing from the shore.  Tom Hopkins, of the Hopkinses for which the pond is named; comes by, but doesn't fish.  I often wonder if he comes by to see if people are having a good time in the pond his family worked for generations.  Even my father, acquiescing to time's constant march, has taken to using a walking stick; although we give him endless grief about it.

Opening day also gives me a chance to knock the dust off my old fly rod.  A 5 weight Sage rod, I have had the same rod for the past 15 years or so.  It has a small nick in the cork handle, but other than that, it is in the same shape since I received it as a birthday gift.  Rods, fly rods especially, tend to grow on you, and become increasingly more "comfortable" as time goes on.  I can't imagine not using this rod, and I don't quite know what I will do if or when the time comes to replace it.  The line is not quite that old, but certainly shouldn't be trusted past its yearly duties.  

The fishing itself is a pretty normal affair.  We always keep track of who caught how many and the most.  Is there any other way??  When the fishing slows down, our patience wear thin, and we start swapping out flies until we get another hit.

Truth be told, if we just kept fishing, I doubt our catch numbers would change much, but such is the nature of fishing.  There are practical jokes, usually perpetrated by yours truly, constant ribbing, and plenty of laughs.

The years pass, things change, and we all get older; but opening day will always be there.  As will I and my family.

The Sapona and Gun Cay

What would a vacation be without hitting some of the local tourist attractions?  I was never one to take a vacation and do nothing.  Sure, I can do that for a half a day or so, but the thrill of a new place for me is seeing the sights, walking the walk.

With Bimini, the attractions, like most things on the island, is a DIY affair.  There aren't many tour companies, booze cruises, or chartered boats.  The island still relies (for the near future anyhow) on private boat tourism as its main revenue stream.

The one exception, and one that is certainly a polarizing topic, is the Resorts World Bimini outfit, that is building a pier for their cruise ship to dock at, which may turn Bimini into the newest day tripper spot out of South Florida, changing the dynamic of the island drastically by most accounts.  For good or bad, however,  remains to be seen.

After a relaxing morning which saw a beautiful sunrise, we treated ourselves to a nice breakfast, and planned out our day.

When reading about a new boating area, I like to hit a few of my normal haunts for information, like thehulltruth.com, yachtforums.com,  as well as whatever google decides to toss my way.  Inevitably, you start to see a pattern of the same things come up, and you get a good idea where you stand.  Two places kept popping up, and so there you go.  Itinerary; done.  First on the list was the Sapona.  The Sapona is a concrete ship (as in, made of concrete, not carried it...) that sunk/beached in a hurricane back in 1926.   The history of the Sapona is pretty neat, and a decent read. But better than the read is the snorkeling!  Fish a plenty, eerie looking from inside, the Sapona makes for a great spot to hop in the water and see the sights.

Wild, right??  My brother snagged some terrific conch shells as souvenirs, and all in all, we had a blast.  

Next up on the list, after a nice lunch on the water, was Gun Cay, and its not so well known Honeymoon Harbor.  Gun Cay is a tiny spit of land about 5 miles south of Bimini.  It's uninhabited, and pretty devoid of structure outside of an automated light house.  On the North end, there is a natural sandbar that creates a wonderful anchorage, and with a small boat, you can nose right into it, and be treated to some of the clearest water in the Bahamas. 

Also hanging out at Gun Cay are a nice, very friendly population of stingrays.  They are trained to expect snacks from the visitors, so once you hop in the water, you can be sure that you will get a hello, and a nudge, to fork over the goodies.  Luckily, we had a few boxes of squid to keep them entertained.  In the photo below, my yellow mesh bag had the squid in it...  Can you guess who his new buddy was?

Once we got to shore, the fun continued!  Apparently, they really enjoyed the squid.  For the better part of half an hour, we were able to get to know our two hosts, and they allowed us to hand feed them, play with them a bit, and feel their undulating wings as they passed through water as shallow as 6 inches.  Astonishing to say the least.

It's not on any tour itineraries, no cruise ships stop here, and I think that makes this place just a little bit more special than many of the places that I have been.  You really get a great sense of the tropics in a place like this one.  Fantastic.  This was a day that I will remember for a very long time, and I'm very thankful that I had my family and friends there to enjoy it with.

Well, thats enough reminiscing for now.  Ill let you all digest this bit before we go on to our next installment.

For those of you who have been to the Bahamas by boat yourself, where is your favorite spot??  Let me know!

Bimini.

After a few week hiatus doing what pays for my boating, I return with yet another tale of exploration, of warmer climes, of Fun!  That is, of course, our first trip to the Bahamas (the Biminis to be more precise) by boat.  I have often heard people talking about running to the Bahamas, read about their trips, and seen the countless photos of Crystal Clear water and tropical towns.  Now its my turn!

I was scheduled to be working in Florida last Friday, so with some gentle nudging and a decent amount of planning, I was able to wrangle the family into my plot, and they all headed down with me to Florida.  We left Saturday morning, after a somewhat lazy start, from about as far up the New River's south fork as you can possibly hope for.  Never having travelled this waterway, some quick reading tipped me off to the many bridges, and somewhat tight channels that I was in store for.  Why does Florida love its drawbridges???

And talk about some tight turns!  There are a couple of hairpin turns that would give an F1 driver a run for their money...

Onward!  Out to open water an HOUR later (not kidding here, its an hour to get to open water... Shoot me in the head.)  Once we got into open water, we were able to stretch our gals legs, and with the 2-3 foot rollers, we had a nice comfortable 25 kt. cruise for the 48 mile run to Bimini.  48 miles, not too bad.  I had a mental image if it being much longer... but all in all, we were there in two hours and twenty minutes or so.  Of course that meant that the girls had a perfect nap break, which they took advantage of...

Once we got into Bimini, it was beautiful.  Seas less than 2', Bahama Blue water (which just doesn't come through in photos... ) 82 degree weather, and a light breeze.  What more can you hope for??

Gorgeous.  And what a feeling arriving there on your own.  I know I've said it before, but you really do feel like an explorer.  Its just you, your boat, and wherever you want to go.  No rules (well, some rules) no structure.  Its a great feeling.

Well, thats our arrival.  My flight is coming up soon to take me back to the wretched New England weather we are having, so thats all for now.  Next update, DIY snorkeling, and a nosey stingray!